I am excited to present to you my first “official” podcast! I have one previous Q&A recording right here, that I have listed on this site; but this will be the first podcast listed in iTunes officially. (The iTunes page is not officially up, but will be very soon).
In this first podcast, I decided to just sit in front of the microphone and tell my story. I'll share a little bit more of my background, education, and details including some of my early entrepreneurial efforts. In addition, I'll dig in a little deeper on how I went from working full-time at a large bank, to becoming self-employed building niche websites.
I had worked many hours late at night or in the early morning on my business while I worked a separate full-time job. So, when the day came that I was making more from my “side” business than my full-time job, I knew it was time to quit. I officially left my job about 13 months ago.
Here's a quick overview of some of the topics in the Podcast:
- Family life growing up
- Why I got interested in business
- My Educational and Career Background
- How I got started building websites
- How I finally became successful at Building Niche Websites
- Importance of keyword research
- My Income with Niche Websites
- Creation of NichePursuits.com
- Whats it like working from home?
Note: I recorded this podcast before my Adsense account was banned. So, obviously I've had a major curve ball thrown at me since I recorded this. However, I'm sure you will still find the podcast very informative and insightful into my process. In addition, this “curveball” actually makes me very grateful that I have more going on in my business than just Google Adsense. I discuss several of these businesses outside of niche sites that have been very helpful in diversifying my income. I specifically discuss some of my existing business ventures as well as some planned for the near future.
Here are some items discussed in the podcast:
- NichePursuits.com – Discussion of why it was created ( hint: Primary reason was NOT to discuss niche websites)
- Long Tail Pro – Keyword Research Tool I developed.
- Niche Website Theme – Highly customizable theme for niche sites.
- iPhone App Project – expected to be released mid-May!
This is the first of many Podcasts coming very soon! I already have several interviews scheduled with some great internet entrepreneurs…so stayed tuned for more!
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts below…
Listen to the Podcast Here:
Spencer Haws is the founder of NichePursuits.com. After getting a degree in Business Finance from BYU (2002) and an MBA from ASU (2007) he worked for 8 years in Business Banking and Finance at both Merril Lynch and Wells Fargo Bank.
While consulting with other small business owners as a business banker, Spencer finally had the desire to start his own business. He successfully built a portfolio of niche sites using SEO and online marketing that allowed him to quit his job in 2011. Since then he's been involved in dozens of online business ventures including: creating and exiting Long Tail Pro, running an Amazon FBA business for over 3 years and selling that business, founding LinkWhisper.com, and co-founding MotionInvest.com. You can learn more about Spencer here.
35 Comments
Conversation
Hey Spencer, I was just wondering if you were going to put this up on iTunes?
Yes, I will have it up on iTunes in the next couple of days. I’ll share the link once I get it all set up.
Congratulation Spencer on your first podcast. It’s amazing and I see myself on your journey.
I see myself how it’s difficult to take decision to quit a day job and go full time blogging. It needs courage and confidence to success.
Hope to see many more interesting podcasts.
Thanks,
Vijay
Thanks Vijay…glad you enjoyed it!
Hi Spencer:
Arigato/thanks for Podcast # 1!
Are you planning to ramp up your social media presence?
If so I’d be interested in learning how you plan you will
manage link building + social media presence building.
Very happy with nichewebsitetheme and your videos
with Chris Guthrie.
Thanks PV. Yes, I have some plans for social media for my NichePursuits.com brand.
Excellent Spencer!
This is the best news I have seen all day!
Looking forward to seeing it in iTunes and subscribing.
Hi Spencer
really good start to your podcasting 🙂
Lots of good background info. And by the way you pretty , much spelt out the difficulties with this business!
I hope the iphone app is still going to be released?
Steve
Yes, the iPhone app is still going to be released as planned. I expect the middle of May.
awesome! you should make more podcasts! its much easier to listen to these while jogging than reading a blog. id definitly listen
Noted! Thanks Bryan!
Nice intro/outtro (whatever you want to call it). Professional and fun. Looking forward to what you have down the road. Keep it up!
Thanks Steve – spent alot of time looking for music that I’m allowed to purchase/use. Glad you liked it!
I especially liked the ending music, nice choice. Might not be a bad idea to do a post about where to get music or any other kind of media to use on sites, videos, and pod casts.
unless of course you already have, in which case would love the link 🙂
-Mike
Thanks Mike. You can search for “royalty free music”. I purchased the music I used off of iStockPhoto (they have an audio section) but there are MANY other places. Glad you enjoyed the music! Wanted to do some other cool things, but its tough to find good royalty free music.
Congratulations!
As Brian Clark says every smart start-up is a digital media company, I think every smart individual will become a digital media expert.
And that’s the right way and the only way forward.
Great podcast Spencer – very enlightening.
🙁 No transcript?!? I was looking forward to reading this from my phone 😀 looks like a cool podcast. Can’t wait to check it out.
Amir
I really enjoyed this podcast. I feel so inspired! Thanks! I’m looking forward to more.
Nice! I think it is a smart idea that you are now getting into Podcast.
This is most likely going to increase your followers and lead to even better things!
Keep it flowing Spencer.
-Omar
Thanks for the encouragement Omar!
Wow! Now I have something to look forward to for my drive into work tomorrow. I know it will be good, so keep them coming.
Nice Podcast, Spencer…Enjoyed listening..
Is there a non-flash version of the MP3 player for the WP audio plugin?
I am assuming you are using WP Audio Player or similar player to embed/play the audio mp3 in your post. ..
Hope your iPhone apps business takes off now!
Cheers!
I’m not using WP Audio Player, its actually Blubrry Powerpress plugin.
Hey mate, great job. .. Can’t wait to see what you do next..
great to see you have a podcast I love your blog but find podcast’s my favorite way of learning as I can sit down relax and get great info pumped straight to my ears from smart people. Keep these podcast’s coming 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it Matt! I have many more podcasts recorded or soon to be recorded…
Awesome show Spencer!
I am also creating bunch of mini sites. Cant wait for next show.
Please send out another email once it becomes possible to subscribe. Listening to it as an individual program gets in the way of my work flow. But I would definitely be interested in hearing it. Thanks!
Nice podcast Spencer! I was wondering where you get your intros and endings made. They are truly awesome!
wow ! Looks like google has been at it again. A site of mine that has ranked very well for years just lost ranking for about 10 or 20 keywords. This is my legit business site, good content, white hat, etc. Google has gone over the top..they are completely out of control. Google is nothing more than a monopoly that that needs to be tamed. I never thought I would say this, but I am in the process of writing a letter to my congress felon, the Federal Trade Commission, and Bill Gates. Please give me Microsoft any day. Google and facebook are evil twins that will destroy all in their path..its happening right before our eyes. Don’t believe me..go check your rankings..right now……
something very big and bad going down…check the rankings on your best sites…are your still there >>>>>>> The latest video is “Google Gone Wild”
And if you think I have gone nuts…check out this video FROM GOOGLE
http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35843
opening statement…turn yourself in and beg forgiveness from big brother…
just listen to this………Is this all really happening ?????????
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/6-changes-every-seo-should-make-before-the-over-optimization-penalty-hits-whiteboard-friday
ok..this one worth listening too a few times…….this is what appears to have hit the airwaves over the last day or two..an why many sites have been whacked. It’s like the Soprano’s..one day you are in the family, the next day Pauly has you on your knees with a gun to head saying he is really sorry but its just business.
And Serge is spending our money mining asteroids with Eric….you couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried..
Hey Spencer, good to see you’re pushing past your adsense troubles. I need to check out this new podcast. I just want to mention also that Media.net (which you mentioned on the previous post) is really worth testing. RPM is in some cases 3x as high as adsene for me. Good luck, i’ll be following!
Great podcast Spencer! many thanks for sharing so freely. Very informative and full of golden nuggets… worth bookmarking and listening to monthly for inspiration and to remain focused.